PEDDAPALLI | May 21, 2017:

The National trade unions of Singareni Collieries Company Limited have decided to stay firm and stick to their call to go on indefinite strike in the Singareni coal mines from June 15 demanding the revival of dependent employment scheme to coal miners.

A decision to this effect was taken by national trade union leaders — Y Gattaiah of AITUC, B Janak Prasad of INTUC, Raiz Ahmed of HMS, T. Raji Reddy of CITU and B. Laxminarayana of BMS and others — in Godavarikhani coal belt on Saturday night.

Following the High Court striking down the circular issued by SCCL announcing the revival of dependent employment scheme, the five national trade unions served a strike notice on the management on March 31.

The Labour Department hosted tripartite consultations with the trade unions and management on April 6 and 17. Nothing concrete emerged from it and the Singareni management put off their talks on the pretext of approaching the Supreme Court on the scheme.

Again another round of talks were held on April 27 after the Supreme Court found fault with the Singareni over the revival of the scheme, but the management informed the union leaders that they were seeking legal opinion and sought time and hence the Labour Department rescheduled the talks to May 25.

The trade union leaders were of the view that the talks on May 25 also would not be fruitful.

They are planning to collect the ‘failure report’ from the Labour Department and declare strike from June 15. “We have already given three chances to the Singareni management to settle the issue, but it failed to do so. Now, we will not remain silent and we have decided to go on strike demanding that the government fulfill the promise to the coal miners during the last elections,” said a trade union leader.

The trade union leaders argued that there were ways the Singareni management could provide employment to the wards of the coal miners without any legal complications and without violation of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

The management should conduct a periodical medical examination (PME) of coal miners who crossed 50 years of age and declare them as medical unfit and provide jobs to their children, they said.

This way, there would be no legal hurdles and all the applicants would get employment, they opined.

As several new mines were coming up in the region and there was scope for more employment opportunities, the leaders said. The Singareni management should follow the dependent employment scheme which was in vogue in the SCCL from January 29, 1981 to June 6, 1998 by entering into an agreement with the recognized trade union.

(Source: http://www.thehindu.com/)